The EU Twitter Fight Club Champion 2014 is crowned

As was foretold at the signing of the Treaty of Maastricht (broadly picture above), there has come a time when two noble European Twitter Fighters @BrusselsGeek and @Berlaymonster would meet in battle. One would end the day in glory, the other but a shadow of a mention in a Commission press briefing. With the former competitors-turned judges to watch and the European peoples to vote, the winner would be crowned Champion of all of Euro Twittersphere, the loser would be sent into training for #TFC15.

On the day the judges were split over these two worthy finalists and in true European democratic fashion the winner of EU Twitter Fight Club 2014 was unwittingly decided by the public vote who probably didn’t know what they were voting for/against. In truth this champion was crowned by just 5 votes.

Yet it seems that at least @kosmoplit knew what would happen all along. Way back before the competition started, he said that ‘The first rule of #TFC14 is that [this account] wins twitter fights club’. This may be so, but it looks like we’ll need a new first rule for #TFC15 as the winner now takes home the trophy and is banished from competing in EU TFC for all eternity (no doubt to their huge relief). So without further deliberation, lets move on to an ever closer union under our inaugural champion…..

#TFC14 champion ~ @Berlaymonster!

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

The afternoon battle was slowing down when a mysterious account calling itself ‘TFC Informant started a long rant against @berlaymonster – sensing a proxy – I storified the late intervention here. Was it someone desperate to win, desperate that @Berlaymonster didn’t or even the monster itself having some fun? We may never know, but I fully expect we’ll see them reappear for #TFC15…

TFC Informant @TFC_Grass

I’ve waited too long to do this. It’s time the world knew the truth behind the monster. #TFC14

TFC Informant @TFC_Grass

THE MONSTER CANNOT BE ALLOWED TO WIN. PRESERVE YOUR FREEDOM. VOTE @BrusselsGeek #TFC14

Habermas gave his views on the European public sphere and #TFC14 (via @Berlaymonster):

And some TFC14 action caught on camera may give you an idea who @hughbs votes for….. (via @clemencerobin)

(2) @BrusselsGeek 47%  2 votes

******* (1) @Berlaymonster  53%  2 votes

Judge: @ktowens

After a week of hilarity and time consuming madness, my decision was always going to be between doing it for the girls and voting for @BrusselsGeek or giving the number two seeded @Berlaymonster the title.

Jennifer Baker ‏@BrusselsGeek

@ktowens You will be letting your feminist side loose while voting, right? Also happy to bribe. #TFC14

I was hoping for more bribes, flattery and general interaction as a judge, but was pleased to hear the monster give his support to both the EPP and the CoR (albeit after a little prompting).

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

@ktowens Whatever I may have said in the past, I’ve always thought the regions are KEY to the EU. Oh, and the EPP. Key. #TFC14

Whilst there was a long, monster shaped silence over lunch, I did enjoy seeing Habermas join the debate along with @Berlaymonster’s Commissioner interaction.

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

Oh PLEASE fight… #TFC14 MT @NeelieKroesEU @Berlaymonster ensuring jobs and innovation is everyone’s “patch” & everyone’s responsibility 🙂

Cecilia Malmström @MalmstromEU

@Berlaymonster@BrusselsGeek I thought it was euro- fraggle

However, my mind was made up by an even later player in the game. @TFC_Grass made a strong case to slay the Berlaymonster and so I have decided to do just that. The winner for me is @Brusselsgeek

Judge: @Usherwood

In many ways life isn’t fair. And I like to think that the final day of the inaugural EU TFC has shown just that. It’s like a series of life lessons.

I mention this because I would really like to be casting my vote for @BrusselsGeek. She’s been funny, she’s been informative, she’s actually come up with useful bribes for the (other) judges.

As she says, she’d beat @Berlaymonster in a fist fight. That’s all to her credit. The fact that she also seems to really be doing her job – whereas others seems to just have long lunches – makes it all the more impressive: I can attest to how difficult it is to balance those two things (and no, the chapter’s still only half-done).

But in the face of @Berlaymonster, resistance is futile. I have never seen someone/thing with so much ability in crafting a snappy/snippy response and with subverting debates. To take just one example, the ‘pandering’ to the judges this afternoon almost literally brought my lunch back up: impressive, if disgusting.

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

@tom_wein , don’t go changing. You. *whispers* “stay beautiful” *winks* #TFC14

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

@ktowens Whatever I may have said in the past, I’ve always thought the regions are KEY to the EU. Oh, and the EPP. Key. #TFC14

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

@hughbs I think we… I dunno.. just kind of *get* each other? You know? You get that too? #TFC14

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

@Usherwood The respect I have for you is measurable. But only with A BLOODY BIG RESPECTOMETER. #TFC14

What really sealed it for me was the blog post that @Berlaymonster put out this afternoon. It was funny, but it was actually making a more serious point and highlighted that there’s more to this ‘Euro-ferret’ than a bag of quips. OK, it wasn’t as good as my own blog post, but very little is.

So, in true academic summary, I should be saying that the decision requires more (EU-funded) research. Except I decided already and my vote goes to @Berlaymonster (possibly on condition that if it wins, it composes a song to commemorate the occasion).

Judge: @hughbs

Having spent the evening in close proximity to the voluptuous @brusselsgeek, it could be surmised that my judgement was jugs oriented. Nothing could be further from the truth: it is based entirely on the culture of fear that pervades the institutions and the para-institutional world of the sub-eurocrat.

Though most of the day was spent in consideration of the fact that while, if the lady were to attempt to physically aggress me, I could see her coming, as it were, and take steps to defend myself, I was inevitably at the mercy of the anonymous monster.

However, further to judicious, pre-judicial, enquiries, I am confident that behind the fearsome fur lurks, to put it gently, a wimp.

Jennifer Baker ‏@BrusselsGeek

@Usherwood I’d beat @Berlaymonster in a fist fight. Might is right!

I therefore no longer hesitate to bestow my vote on the feisty combatant who eschews irrelevant references to German philosophers to undercut the admittedly withering wit and wondrous wisdom of the gravy-addicted freak who inhabits the Commission’s nether regions. As it were. If you want the Storify, make it yourselves. This is a voluntary exercise 🙂

(ed note: taken to mean – Vote @BrusselsGeek!)

Judge: @Tom_Wein

There is one pan-European institution that is truly loved – that achieves the communication professional’s coveted cut-through. While MS and JCJ struggle to get on the telly, the EP pays consultants and the EC struggles stodgily for attention, everyone watches the UEFA Champions League. And surely football does more than any worthy initiative to create and perform our imagined communities. As I watch tonight, Real Madrid are obliterating Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final. That suggests that football is fairer than Brussels, where Germany is rarely beaten by Spain, but what does it tell us about today’s contest?

Well, Real Madrid are one of Europe’s footballing powerhouses. Powerful and skillful, they are also often arrogant, and happy to employ low cunning when it suits them. And tonight they are victorious. Bayern are likewise incredibly talented, and rather more likeable: they play attractive football, and take care to charm their fans. They also play in red.

Bayern’s red, tonight, is also BrusselsGeek’s red hair. Despite valiant efforts she, unfortunately, loses [my vote]. The Monster has demonstrated endless wit and deep knowledge; this morning he added informative seriousness to that toolbox. Mud has stuck to the Berlaymonster, and I am not sure the ferret is truly loved; I’d rather have a beer with BG, but that is not what champions are made of.

Thanks are owed to Mathew Shearman, our Michel Platini, and to all the competitors – even those who were consigned early to Europa League level. I hope #TFC15 is better still.

—

—

And thats it folks! Its been interesting, hilarious and hard work for all in equal measure so thanks for participating / reading. Keep well and see you next year for #TFC15*******

*Assuming the UK is still part of the EU and I’m allowed to communicate with you

** And that there is still an EU to be a part of…

***And that EU twitter isn’t just a Russian language only service

#TFC14 Grand Final

And here we are – the inaugural final of EU Twitter Fight Club. Many worthy tweeters have already fallen and just two remain. One a journalist who won through rounds by an unhealthy #TFC14 obsession and delivering on the promise to publish an #EUtweets edition on Twitter Fight Club. The other, the BerlayMonster, has been formidable throughout with snark, memes, witty and intelligent points in equal measure. Now they must face off to settle all scores in the final plenary session…. 

As well as the public vote below, the final is traditionally judged by former competitors – #TFC14’s offering is @usherwood, @Tom_Wein, @hughbs and @Ktowens. Next year’s competition will feature a Baker/BrusselsGeek  Bracket and a BerlayMonster  Bracket but only one of these competitors will win the EU twitter Fight Club Trophy! 

But first of all you should follow all the people who have given up their time to judge this event. Without a chance of winning the trophy, they have been tweeting and typing away for nothing more than a few small bribes and without them this wouldn’t have been possible! They are:

@alex__marx

@alexekkelenkamp

@danabrussels

@ganemmaha

@OlgaDziewulska

@colingoeu

@PH_AdvocateEU

@shearmanm (organiser / judge)

So to battle!

 

#TFC14 Semi Final Results

On the day of Europe’s first Commission President debate #EUdebate2014, four contenders for a very different title took on one another for a chance at the ultimate European accolade – EU Twitter Fight Club Champion 2014. Two contenders wrote beautiful poems, if failing to realise they weren’t actually writing in EU minority languages and the other two bashed it out over their favourite kind of Brussels protest. Only two will progress to face it off in Tuesday’s final and, as one judge points out towards the end of this post, only one deep question remains “if the monster is more erudite than you, then who is truly the monster here?”

THING YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

An excellent word cloud for key #TFC14 terms over the championship (thanks @alexekkelenkamp)

I just remembered that @Berlaymonster was the only competitor to submit an EU service tender form as a form of entry for #TFC14. Just look at the fields of specialisation. We should’ve been warned…..

****(1 ) @BrusselsGeek 58%  1 vote

(2) @Christina_D_S  42%  1 vote (1 abstain)

The people’s champion @BrusselsGeek sneaks through on the public’s vote and sets herself up with a place in the Final. Can’t help but think that @Christina_D_S will be a fearsome opponent in #TFC15.

Judge: @usherwood

A tough pairing, with both our competitors having proven themselves in some fights in earlier rounds (as well as @hughbs).

I set a couple of small challenges during the day, to see how much energy (and how many ideas) they had left from last week. The impression was that everyone else had more energy, as the suggestions for new UKIP policies and phrases in tonight’s #EUdebate2014 seemed to come more from all those who should be relaxing/preparing for next year/just stopping altogether.

Jennifer Baker ‏@BrusselsGeek

@Usherwood New rights for Britatarians. All restaurants will be required to serve at least one traditional British dish.#TFC14

Christina DS ‏@Christina_D_S 

@Usherwood compulsory wearing of tweed jackets on Sunday.Followed by pub lunch-only British beer #tfc14

However, major bonus to @BrusselsGeek for composing her Gaelic limerick, while @Christina_D_S ran into the ground a bit with the non-rhyming language of Catalan.

Jennifer Baker ‏@BrusselsGeek 

#TFC14 #minoritylimericks @Berlaymonster @Usherwood @Christina_D_S Cailín deas ó Londain fadó, Ag iarraidh páirt a ghlacadh sa seó, Ach anseo ar an Twitter, Bhí sí a “quitter”, Beidh an bua le @Brusselsgeek ann go deo #TFC14

Christina DS ‏@Christina_D_S

@Usherwood Votar per Europa és amar casa nostra. No votar per Europa és ficar la pota.Per tant, si votes Europa, no fiques la pota! #TFC14

Minus marks to both for not just checking what the EU’s minority languages are (there’s even a whole Wikipedia page on it, if you’re being really academic), which would have shown that English was perfectly acceptable.

While @Christina_D_S was a bit tied up with work today, she really put the effort in and had a good evening. Her coverage of #EUdebate2014 was the more serious and informative of the two (I was eating my tea instead, so I’ve used both their tweets to reconstruct a picture).

Christina DS ‏@Christina_D_S 

@SkaKeller surprisingly good @GuyVerhofstadt fantastically passionate. @JunckerEU needs to stop. @MartinSchulz mediocre #TFC14 #EUdebate2014

At the end of the day, I think it has to go to @BrusselsGeek, if only for wanting to carry on talking about #EUdebate2014 after everyone else seems to have been glad to turn their back on it. Like @Berlaymonster with his gin, she just doesn’t seem to know when to stop, which is the mark of a winner. Also of a person with an obsessive personality, but hey, it’s what #TFC14 is all about.

Judge: @ganemmaha 

I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help tonight… I don’t know if it’s the bus going back to BXL from Maastricht but I just can’t decide between @Chistina_D_S and @BrusselsGeek 

They were both great today like really all 4 of them had a great #TFC14…

Judge:@PH_AdvocateEU

Well today was even tougher than on Thursday, but I made up my mind and my choice for today is: winner @Chrisitina_D_S

Equally as witty, wise, intelligent as @BrusselsGeek, she won me over with her reporting of #EUdebate14, with a great sense of humour, yet with political content.

Christina DS‏@Christina_D_S

Absolutely RT @PlaceLuxEU: The big losers of tonight’s debate: the cynics who thought this couldn’t work. #EUdebate2014

Also, I think everyone else will vote for Brussels Geek (see her number of followers) whom I also largely enjoyed reading today, especially in her response to the challenge of drafting a limerick in Gaelic (an EU official language, unlike most regional languages, which were the subject of the challenge – we will excuse her)

The EUdebate14 spiced up the whole TFC14 today, it helped Brussels Geek, busy spending money she does not have in the morning, catching up with the “fight” and she did very well.

Jennifer Baker ‏@BrusselsGeek

@Christina_D_S I’ve been off signing my life away (aka taking out a mortgage) -what’s your excuse? I fear we’re letting #TFC14 down

However, @Christina_D_C showed determination, strength, commitment and did not fail us today, whatever her (personal) schedule was… my vote goes to Christina – also coz I want to see her fight Berlaymonster 🙂

Via @alexekkelenkamp

#ReadyForTheLastRound

SEMI FINAL 2

(2) @MissMillicent  20%  0 votes

****(1 ) @berlaymonster 80%  3 vote

@Berlaymonster delivers his best performance yet and storms into the final with a solid win. On any other day @MissMillicent would be an excellent finalist but the Euro-Fraggle monster has made it within a bite of the trophy.

Judge: @Clemencerobin

here is my judgment. My vote goes to berlaymonster.

The weekend took its toll and it was a slow #TFC14 Monday compared with other rounds’ standards. Understandably, constestants start to bond and are less fierce to fight each other – or had other real-life EU stuff to deal with, such as many meetings for @missmillicent and serious salad weighing for @Berlaymonster.

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

I went to the EP canteen. Lady at the till said I had to weigh my salad. I said “NO WAY!” She said “WEIGH!” #saladrevolution #TFC14

Lots of insiders’ jokes and info difficult to grasp outside of the bubble so few points for information sharing today in spite of @MissMillicent’s valuable efforts to tweet links on UKIP populist rhetoric and #EP2014 in the UK (including a shocking article from Boris Johnson).

Millicent‏@MissMillicent

Very interesting briefing about how to counter populist rhetoric from @_Counterpoint_http://counterpoint.uk.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Populist-rhetoric-UKIP.pdf

But while @Berlaymonster was commenting the insides of first-world eurocrats’ problems, @MissMillicent’s timeline focussed a bit too much on the UK. Europe goes beyond Brussels or the UK (especially the UK, I would say…). In addition, the challenges posted by my fellow judge @tom_wein remained unanswered. So, overall, not super impressed by this round.

Hello there !

That being said, I liked that I was able to make them tweet a bit of French – and Dutch, German and what seemed to be either Danish or Swedish- and the overall interaction with them. As a judge I received my fair share of attention from @Berlaymonster and @MissMillicent today.

What ultimately made the difference in my voting is the monster’s cute, furry look when calling out for votes – simply too cute to resist even though he tries to act tough !

He also just made me laugh today with his irresistible humour nailing the EU bubble and its characters. I enjoyed the #expatgripes hashtag and @quatremer even retweeted his – proof that he accepts the crown of ultimate expatgriper.

@Berlaymonster deserves to go to the final because of his (her ?) rare skill of always making me smile while talking about what could seriously be grim European topics (and his ability to tweet fun photos faster than weighing his salad !). That kind of combination can only be found in a true EU tweeter!

What’s his next line going to be ? Already laughing at the thought of it:

And now bring on the final !!

Judge:@alexekkelenkamp

Today’s battle was not an easy one to judge, but definitely an entertaining one as Eurohipster @MissMillicent took on Euroferret @Berlaymonster. Berlaymonster topped the scoreboards from the beginning of TFC14 and continued to do so today- this creature (m/f) was obviously Born To Twitter Fight.

But @MissMillicent matched him/her blow by blow, starting with early morning gin, followed by calls to vote (Berlaymonster was slightly more convincing), and multilingual tweets. I was a little bit disappointed by @Berlaymonster’s refusal to go for a drink with the Dutchies (not as brave as @captain_europe then). Equally unimpressive were the salad jokes and a sad attempt to butter up the judges, fortunately compensated by some first rate trolling as well as a delightful wake-up call (will use as my alarm from now on- best way to run out of bed). [ed note: video here]

Meanwhile, @MissMillicent managed to uncover some secrets from the @Berlaymonster’s past, including an interesting connection with Mayor Boris. Too little too late, however: as meetings kept her otherwise occupied, the @Berlaymonster rolled on with meme after meme, pun after pun. Including my favourite: “I’m snarkening my pencils already.” In the end, even @MissMillicent herself admitted: “@Berlaymonster deserves to go through to final”.

Millicent @MissMillicent

@tom_wein You’re too kind 🙂 @Berlaymonster deserves to go through to final of #TFC14

So here’s my verdict: despite a very strong performance thus far, we will have to say goodbye to @MissMillicent as a contestant, and welcome her in our ranks as fellow judge. I for one am looking forward to more snark and “sneering from the sidelines” from @Berlaymonster. But please, for the love of God, no more salad jokes.

Judge: @Tom_wein

I’d said from the start that I’d be judging capriciously, and on the sound principle of picking whoever did most to assuage my bitterness at an early exit. And Millicent did furnish me with a magnificent photograph of a Belgian farmer spraying a riot policeman with milk direct from the teats of his protesting cow.

Yet in a quiet-ish battle, there was only one winner: Berlaymonster’s stream of wit, unwonted aggression and EUffluent is a recipe for victory, and in this judge’s opinion he should rampage on to the final. Particular highlights for me were the Monster’s campaign poster (‘Vote Scum or the Biting Starts’) [see above] and his contribution to the Ukraine debate ‘EU/US agree to “tut louder” at Russia’.

Berlaymonster @Berlaymonster

“EU/US agree to “tut louder” at Russia” #fantasyheadlines #TFC14

When Millicent suggested that her opponent deserved to win, I thought it might be an elegant strategic ploy, but in the end, she was just right – he did. Which all leads me to wonder: if the monster is more erudite than you, then who is truly the monster here?

The Final is on! 

EU #TFC14 Semi Finals – (The Troika + 1)

After three grueling competition days and three less grueling weekend days we’re down to our final four competitors. Many intelligent and funny tweeters have fallen but the Troika+1 of EU Twitter Fight Club 2014 are @Brusselsgeek, @Christina_D_S, @MissMillicent, @Berlaymonster. Only two will now progress to the grand final on Tuesday with a shot at winning the soon-to-be-coveted #TFC14 trophy (below).

Quick reminder of the broad criteria for judges and the public poll here. Any finalist of #TFC14 will have to tweet with interest and humour and maybe offer a bribe or two to stand a chance of winning in the final, which will be judged by their peers  – past competitors.

So for the penultimate time – to battle!

 

THE PRIZES

Both finalists will have brackets named after them in #TFC15 but only one winner will be ground champion of EU Twitter Fight Club taking home the glory, banishment / freedom from the fight club forever and the star-decked inaugural EU Twitter Fight Club trophy:

THE VOTE

 

 

EU #TFC14 L8 Results

Great battles can turn on the smallest of things. Yesterday was a story of Haikus, EU views and lost luggage. And at least two fights seem to have been influenced by @ktowens luggage challenges in Poland.

For the first time we had three judges on each battle (thanks to the volunteers). The judgements were nasty, brutish and short. The wild card judges proved to be… wild and the faithful judges once again demonstrated the erratic decision-making of a late night council meeting.

Only four twitter fighters will go through to Monday’s semi final, the other four will have to sit on the side and become judges in the final….. Themz the rules. 😉 Have a restful weekend twitter fighters – you, I and they need it!

THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED

@jon_worth was rightly upset that the judges had missed his (admittedly excellent) photoshopping of Juncker as #Spliffingkandidaten in his L16 round defeat.  So i’ve introduced a new section at the beginning called ‘things you might have missed’. I’ve picked a few of my favourite things from the day not referred to by the judges:

@BrusselsGeek responds to (fallen competitor) @quarsan’s baiting in an astonishing fashion:

For those who worried that the twitter spat between @hughbs, @BrusselsGeek and @quarsan was a little too real. Here’s a pic of them in the pub after fighting hours.

True dedication from judge @mikakosinska throughout the day

Monika Kosinska @mikakosinska

@ShearmanM that’s because I’m stuck at home with a suckling babe attached. Quality of my tweets depends on which side he suckling @hughbs

This from a panicky @Berlaymonster…

Berlaymonster‏@Berlaymonster

Day 3 in the #TFC14 Big Brussels household. The lack of anything whatsoever to work with is taking its toll. DO SOMETHING EUROPE.

And @Kosmopolit sums up ‘the historical dimension’ of #tfc14:

THE RESULTS

MONNET L8 round

(2) @hughbs 16% 2 votes

****(1 ) @BrusselsGeek 84%  1 vote

@BrusselsGeek delivers a knockout punch with video footage promoting #TFC14 and herself into the Semis. @hughbs takes a well-deserved consolation of 2 judges’ votes.

Judge: @ganemmaha

My vote is going to @BrusselsGeek of course what tipped the scale is the video! [ed  note: can’t embed – click below!]

@BrusselsGeek – takes #TFC14 campaigning to a new level

One might argue that it is easy for a journalist that has a whole segment on Tweets to talk about  #TFC14 but what I really liked is that she featured one of  @hughbs and also talked about the UKIP campaign which was the main theme of the first round of #TFC14. It was “three” classy, sneaky and funny! All I can say is great job there she really deserves the vote!

Judge:@PH_AdvocateEU

Winner: @hughbs but it was a very difficult vote as I equally appreciated both contenders tweets, humour, reactiveness and real commitment to TFC14 – but had to make a choice, and, maybe that is French humour, but this one won me over – I found Hugh particularly witty … 

Judge: @OlgaDziewulska

Certainly not as thrilling as Usherwood and Berlaymonster! My vote goes to @hughbs. Victory with @jonworth did not provide him with a reason to rest on his laurels. Although some of his tweets today probably crossed the line of good taste his creativity needs to be rewarded.

When everyone else was busy copying Herman Von Rompuy with more or less (mainly the latter) attempts at poetry he devised atweasure hunt:

Hugh Barton-Smith‏@hughbs

OK kiddies, enjoyed your Easter egg hunts? Now time for #TFC14 tweasure hunt. Next up, first in series of 4 tweets. Can you find 3 others?

Although nobody seemed to understand what the concept was about he got @Mikakosinska and @brunobrussels involved. His use of other people’s tweets and witty comments meant little effort with good results. The question is – will he bow to the popular trend of limerick writing in the next round?

SCHUMAN L8

(2) @kosmopolit 51% 0  votes

****(1 ) @Christina_D_S 49% 3  votes

Another great twitterfighter has fallen. A tired @kosmopolit sneaks the popular vote but succumbs to the humour, employment-related tweets, and determination to secure wifi of @Christina_D_S.

Judge: @ganemmaha

I also vote for @ Christina_D_S although she was working and was battling to get internet she kept up a good fight with humour, pics and insights.

@kosmopolit is great but seems like he is a bit tired it wouldn’t be fair to him to put him through another round anyway 😉

Christina DS @Christina_D_S · 6h

#TFC14 Begged and pleaded for wifi here- nothing much coming out from @kosmopolit so no need to sweat.Greetings from me and Yves Leterme!

Pressure is building only two rounds to go!!!!!

Judge: @PH_AdvocateEU

@Christina_D_S is winning the second battle to my humble opinion, if not by the quantify of tweets she shared today compared to her opponent, by their quality and her full dedication to the cause, whilst travelling, speaking publically and showing concerns for other contenders (Katie Owens, lost luggage)

Christina DS‏@Christina_D_S

@ktowens on a panel so can’t go into detail but look here http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm … OR just swear in PL 😉 #tfc14 pic.twitter.com/fuuRoDTjuY

I particularly liked the following tweet, not only because it’s funny but because I love the Beatles – and putting John Lennon’s words in Tusk and EU HvR’s mouths was enjoyably surreal – in a quite Belgian way..

Judge: @OlgaDziewulska

It must be a daunting prospect to fight against a Twitter heavyweight of @kosmopolit’s proportions, but for Christina it was easier than expected. She gets my vote as kosmpolit joined the fight late today and although his attempts at gaining votes were good.

kosmopolit‏@kosmopolit

@Christina_D_S well, there is more to life than wifi & #tfc14 😉 Real twitter greatness comes from perseverance & seeing the bigger picture

 His heart was simply not in it. Christina succumbed to today’s poetry wave with a sprinkle of photoshopping. She was active, reactive and certainly made an impact. As the judge is an aesthete a picture of a cliché sunset made a nice difference in the noise of unflattering variations on the Schulz-Junker-Merkel theme! Hoping to see Christina bare more teeth in the next round as this was an easy win! Vote  @Christina_D_S.

ADENAUER L8

(2) @ktowens 46% 1 votes

***(1 ) @MissMillicent 54% 1  votes (1 abstain)

@ktowens lost her luggage today and then the fight. With the judges split @MissMillicent sneaks through on the public vote after some neat online wordsearch.

Judge: @mikakosinska 

Today was hard. Very hard. Not only were the competitors back with a vengence but this judge was not only pulled into the gladiator ring and sent on a wild goose hunt across Twitter by @hughbs who she was not even judging, but also having to deal with the fall out of the unpopular (and in hindsight unwise given the afore-mentioned wild goose hunt) award of victory to @hughbs over @jonworth in the previous round.

Nevertheless @ktowens hit the ground running with an early limerick and a wordsearch

(completed by @missmillicent with revealing results!)

and despite losing points on tweeting food (a pet peeve as already declared in yesterday’s judging) and having the misfortune to stumble onto two of this judge’s specialised subjects (Poland and Structural Funds), she did an outstanding job of maintaining a strong and engaging #TFC14 whilst having an extremely challenging day.

@MissMillicent had a slower start but quickly caught up and engaged with some heavy hitting and tit for tat responses. A virtual dance around the #TFC14 arena, with a slight edge to @ktowens in the tweeting stakes but given that @MissMillicent gained not only a BBC reporter but also a Commissioner as followers from her tweeting today this judge has no option but to award this a tie.

Judge: @colingoeu

What a match-up here in the quarterfinals. Two of the most accomplished bribers took to the keyboard to claim their place in the semi-final. That being said, @ktowens was already four up in the offers before @MissMillicent rushed in with a late wee dram. But we’ll have no more talk of this untoward bribery based scoring system, what about the content. In a sea of effluent, I mean excellence it’s sometimes hard to keep your head above the water and be brave enough to open your eyes.

However, one of the early highlights that tipped the balance and made me proud to be floating in the bubble was the genius use of the back end of a stinky STIB bus to nobly pitch the cause. From the other corner, we all know that animals in peril do attract a good sympathy vote, but a seal retweet just doesn’t have the resonance of a lost suitcase.

In the dying seconds a late burst of prose did have the potential to be a game changer, but coming to a haiku match and getting a limerick is like going to a sushi restaurant and being hit with a wet kipper.

When push came to shove, at the end of the day, in a game of two halves, it was the sheer volume and variety that took my vote today:

Winner: @ktowens

Judge: @alex__marx

They all tweet too much – giving me  plenty of -non eligible for over time- extra work.  This is primarily worth “cincos puntos menos” for everybody.

On the other hand, they all have an intrusive – behind the scenes – stunning knowledge of everything #EU matters which qualifies ’em all for the podium.

On a third hand, nobody offered or even suggested relevant bribes or so called baksheesh divers,  which undoubtedly raise me to an unequivocal neutral position.

Hence I will stick to ultra subjectivity in a pure #Gonzo manner.

In terms of Poem warfare: (see storify here) @MissMillicent vs @ktowens – Poem warfare in L8

 My vote goes definitely to @missmillicent haiku-ish effort. No reason though.

I know it’s only

Rock’n’roll, but I like it,
Like it, yes, I do

(2 x)

SPINELLI L8

(2) @usherwood 47% 1 vote

(1) @berlaymonster 53% 1 vote (1 abstain)

@usherwood’s dream comes to an end and his chapter writing may come to a beginning. With only 6% public vote in it @berlaymonster can’t be complacent if he is to take home the #TFC14 gravy…

Judge: @mikakosinska 

Winner: @usherwood

Taking on eurobubble’s Monster is a daunting task indeed, and having deployed some big guns in his previous round I feared @usherwood had used up his arsenal and perhaps met his match in this round but I could not be more wrong.

Surrey Politics ‏@SurreyPolitics 

Our own @Usherwood is competing in the 1st EU TwitterFightClub #TFC14 Vote to keep him in at: https://eutwitterfightclub.wordpress.com/ 

 

Once again it was a consistent and varied form of attack from the senior lecturer from Surrey, which in itself was more than a match for @berlaymonster’s slippery and growlingly impressive upper cuts

, however what clinched this match for me was @usherwood’s ability to reach out of the ring and remind the audience of the importance of the bigger picture here – encouraging education, participation and engagement with the European project.

Simon Usherwood @Usherwood

Explaining Low Turnout in EP Elections: The Role of Issue Salience and Institutional Perceptions tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108… topical for #EP2014

A well-rounded participant with a view to the ultimate goal here, this judge believes that @usherwood will go far in #TFC14.

Judge: @colingoeu

This was always going to be a brutal joust of master wordsmiths, a battle of the giants  a fight to the bitter end, or the end of the bitter, whichever came first.

The tale of the twop is impressive and surprisingly similar, tough the ferret’s appeal to the common man can be seen in his followerbase:

 

The quality of the content today was impressive, I fear for the twitterer who has face the victor in the semi’s. We were bombarded from all sides with tweets that would require a thesasurus worth of words actually meaning something very witty to do them justice.

Even though I recognise that the ferret does take full advantage of not being liable for his actions under the Belgian “Wetgeving dierenwelzijn” and would probably cry “rabies” if anyone got too close,  the pure ferocity of today’s assault was monumental.  You may have imagined that someone coming from the gentile world of British academia was always going to be on the back foot. However the rain of words from Surrey was more than a light drizzle and @usherwood gave as good as he got.

and with charm offensives to the public playing their part,

As the day drew to a close, it looked like the potty, er, poetry  training would come to the fore, but neither of them were any good at that, so the result is based on the other stuff.

For sheer audacity, mix of media and witty quips:

Winner: @berlaymonster.

Judge: @alex__marx

On the @usherwood vs. @berlaymonster I was about to give my vote to @usherwood for this tweet:

Simon Usherwood‏@Usherwood

Critical self-reflection of my performance on day 3 #TFC14: strong start, excellent middle, finish marred only by paucity of poetic ability

It’s brilliant.

But then I came up with @berlaymonster ‘s:

Berlaymonster‏@Berlaymonster

Thank you good night. *waves* #TFC14 #GIN

– So pure.

I give an extra point to each of them. Let the best win. (ed note – taken to mean ‘I abstain)

The semis will be on Monday. Enjoy the rest twitter fighters, there’s only a little more to come….

EU #TFC14 L8 Round – The Elite Sub-Committee of Eight ….

And then there was just enough left to form a small EU sub-committee. Welcome to the L8 Euro Elites!

Yesterday saw the culmination of an epic 48 hour twitter battle between @tom_wein vs. @usherwood and the shock defeat of number 1 seed @jonworth – despite an arguably flawless day tweeting. Check out the judges’ decisions here.

But thats the way EU Twitter Fight Club works, we press on until we have found the spitzenkandidat of EU twitter Fighters…. Today some interesting match ups including between an academic and a puppet and a tech savvy ‘BrusselsGeek’ vs a grumpy old @hughbs. As ever, voting below closes at 12pm GMT.

Results for the L8 will be out by Midday Friday this time (I have client work…) before a weekend’s rest for the lucky few that will make it into the Semi-Finals held on Monday 28th! Email me to volunteer to judge please!

EU #TFC14 L16 Results

Another day of twitter fighting and it seems like you’re getting the hang of this.  Just one more day of tweeting and you’ve broken the EU Working Time Directive (so get a long weekend off until Monday’s semi-finals). But as with every QMV vote, there are winners and losers. Read on dear EU Twitter Fighters to find out who has made it into the elite sub-committee of eight.

Oh yeah and we got an endorsement from fake Jean-Claude Juncker, so that was cool. I suspect that won’t be the last we hear of him….

Jean-Claude Juncker ‏@Juncker_JC  4h

While in no way understanding what is happening, I heartily endorse #TFC14.

(2) @jonworth 63% 0  votes

****(1) @hughbs 37% 2 votes

In a major shock to EU Twitter Fight Club the number 1 seed fails to carry any of the judges’ votes in his first #TFC14 battle. Despite being the popular favourite this time around, @jonworth fails to progress into the L8 and @hughbs becomes the man to beat…. 

 Judge: @mikakosinska

winner @hughbs. A very well-matched fight, with two heavyweights meeting this early in the game it was gripping stuff if not a little disappointing that they met in a preliminary round. Battle-scarred already from their frequent TFC bouts of Twitter banter, @hughbs came out fighting forcing @jonworth into a powerful defensive strategy. Although I thought @hughbs had went down early in the day with a misguided punt towards suicide bombers he came back with sheer dogged persistence and ultimately not just his grammar pedantry but also a closing Shakespeare reference gets him my vote. Despite his repeated unconvincing insistence that he is keen leave the field, my money is on him making it all the way to the final.

Judge: @alexekkelenkamp

Desperation is so TFC14, according to everyone’s favourite eurogrump @hughbs, as he yet again refused to butter up the judges. But we do have a soft spot for him, AND he promised us multi-part tweets from different accounts- a tweasure hunt he calls it. His collage of incriminating @jonworth photos was also promising, although perhaps not as effective as he might have hoped in getting the EPP voter base to move on this issue:

Visual content was also provided by his aforementioned opponent, as he scoured the streets of Brussels for #EP2014 election posters. Highly appreciated!

In a slightly less successful attempt to start a more intelligent debate on euro- vs EUscepticism, he lost us at antineofunctionalist- or was it antitechnocentralist? (ed note: see the storify of the debate here.) Also, no bribes were received. And so, in a surprising turn of events, outspoken non-butter-upper @hughbs gets the vote.

 

(2) @dicknieuwenhuis 30%  1 vote

****(1) @BrusselsGeek 70% 1 vote

The judges are split but @BrusselsGeek storms through with 70% of the vote! (helped along by bribes)

Judge: @mikakosinska 

winner @dicknieuwenhuis. If watching @hughbs vs @jonworth was like watching heavy weights deal powerful blow by powerful blow then these two were more like terriers harrying over a rat. Less points of EU dogma than nipping at each other (and other TFC14 fighters whilst at it). Entertaining and engaging, with good sparring across the day, but ultimately my vote goes to @dicknieuwenhuis, despite his tweeting his breakfast (food porn should not be encouraged and is a personal pet peeve of this judge) but for his passionate commitment to spreading EU cheer despite being on holiday outside of the blessed Union.

Judge: @alexekkelenkamp

With this fight, the judge found herself torn between 2 worthy causes: sympathetic fellow Dutchy, Amsterdammer @dicknieuwenhuis (who knows what it’s like to be Dutch in Brussels), or hashtag-dominating, “charming tech-tastic Irish redhead horse” (dixit @FMR_Brussels) and all-round power woman @BrusselsGeek. Despite boarding flights and losing connections, they treated the audience to frequent, enjoyable and snarky banter- just how we like it. Not to mention some serious last-minute bribing action.

Jennifer Baker ‏@BrusselsGeek  1h

.@alexekkelenkamp big mention on #EUtweets Good Bad and the Ugly tomorrow? 😉 #TFC14bribe

Torn between national pride (and two!!! lunch offers) on one hand, and feelings of female solidarity (read: fear of backlash from #teamwoman) on the other, I eventually decided to go for @BrusselsGeek- it would be fun to see her (possibly) face-off against @hughbs in the next round as she clearly knows how to tell him to “feic off”. Naturally, that offer of a spot on #EUtweets had nothing to do with it…

***(1) @kosmopolit 89%  1 vote

 (2) @Vpertusot 11% 0 vote (1 abstain)

@kosmopolit proves why he’s ranked number 4 in the competition with a domineering win over @Vpertusot.

Judge: @mikakosinska 

winner: @kosmopolit. A largely one-sided fist fight due to @Vpertusot’s dependence on roaming for today’s battle, nevertheless he managed to land some heavy points of policy in his short bursts of fisticuffs. However @kosmopolit was ultimately the stronger fighter of the day, consistent, relentless (extra points for the only #TFV14 to tweet in German) and possibly already won #TFC14 through delivering a genius perfectly aimed tweet which succeeded in drawing most of the EU Twittosphere like flies to, er, smelly stuff.

Judge: @alexekkelenkamp

Today’s TFC14 saw people getting on planes, losing their internet connection or using crappy IT as a (feeble) excuse for dropping out of the fight club from time to time. Blame it on the #roaming…

Vivien Pertusot ‏@VPertusot  11h

@ShearmanM @kosmopolit @captain_europe @Christina_D_S Roaming charges still existing in EU,my participation will be limited today I’m afraid

Although according to some TFC14 participants, the EU would not be what it is without it. Either way, at least @kosmopolit did not hide his reluctance to do battle- or was this a ruse?

kosmopolit @kosmopolit · 14h

I have to “fight” @VPertusot in #tfc14 today. Not feeling combative this morning. But do follow him – he could do with a few more followers

Apart from expressing his displeasure at the new Twitter design he did seem rather mild, stating that TFC14 is a way to showcase the EU twittersphere. He is, of course, wrong- it is an opportunity to bribe judges. Fortunately for him, his opponent @vpertusot seemed equally oblivious to this fact, choosing instead to talk about his (re)tweeting policy. His point about the lack of televised #EP2014 debates was noted, but where was the follow-up? At least one animated gif would have been nice. As it is, this judge finds the @kosmopolit v. @vpertusot fight rather lukewarm and has decided to solve this matter by public vote- I abstain.

(2) @captain_europe 63%  0 votes

****(1) @Christina_D_S 37% 2 votes

@Christina_D_S wins by two votes and one Swedish endorsement.

Judge: @mikakosinska 

winner @Christina_D_S. A super hero is always a very difficult opponent and this match began with @Christina_D_S as the underdog, particularly as this judge has a soft spot for the relentless and determined slaying of Kippers that @captain_europe has dedicated his online existence to. A brave tongue-in-cheek parry at Commissioner Kroes won him extra points late in the game but @Christina_D_S used her early victory against @quarsan to nimbly navigate the match and particularly her refusal to leave the ring with the designation of an alternate (@mennobart) and engagement of random EU citizens to support her victory!

That gets her my vote. Given her dedication and willingness to go the distance, my money is on @Christina_D_S as an outside favourite to take the title of ultimate supreme fighter of #TFC14.

Judge: @alexekkelenkamp

Underscore champions @captain_europe and @Christina_D_S were to face off in today’s TFC14… but the masked superhero didn’t show until late in the day. Something to do with shoddy connectivity apparently, although we think that any superhero worth his salt would have solved the Brussels 4G situation by now. His suggestions on improving conferences were a stroke of genius- automatic trap doors for lengthy speakers? Yes please! His shameless flirtation with @BrusselsGeek, however, was too transparent a plan- we prefer a good fight!

Captain Europe ‏@captain_europe  7h

@BrusselsGeek It’s a date, Miss Lane 😉

It looks like @Christina_D_S can provide just that. In true superhero fashion, @Christina_D_S took us above the clouds as she tweeted a pic from the plane she was on. No excuses there!

Also, grumpy cat. And high-level photoshopping inspired by @fansofflanders.

What really clinched the deal was the promise of “lots of ikea stuff” or cinnamon rolls. Also, I am intrigued by the Google glass in her profile pic: will we see it in action? I’d like to see more of @Christina_D_S, so on to the next round!

(2) @eurocrat 40%  1 vote

****(1) @ktowens 60% 1 vote

In a close fight @ktowens comes out on top with a bit of help from a fake EU Commission President candidate.

Judge: @ganemmaha

@ktowens wasn’t really present today too bad.. so my vote goes to @eurocrat even if he did not use #TFC14…

Judge: @shearmanm

@Ktowens carried this fight with @eurocrat tweeting well below the average for the round (hashtagging properly or not!) Essentially she won the fight by rising to my challenge to plant a question on #TFC14 to Juncker during his press conference (ok it was a tweet, but a sorta risky one?)

What came of it was the fake Juncker twitter account. I haven’t worked out whether @Ktowens is also @Juncker_JC yet – but if #TFC14 is spawning proxy accounts then someone, somewhere is playing it right! @ktowens – for your sake in the next round – lets hope you’ve got that proxy under control!

 

***(1) @MissMillicent 85%  2 votes

  (2) @huettemann 15% 0 votes

After a strong start @huettemann’s title challenge runs out of steam. MissMillicent storms to a dominant victory.

Judge: @ganemmaha

@MissMillicent vs @huetteman also hard but I vote for @MissMillicent they both had a great battle, they are wonderful #TFC 14 contenders but @MissMillicent was better with sense of humour and pics!

Judge: @shearmanm

So full disclosure – i recently had a beer with @MissMillicent and @jonworth in Berlin (yeah, i’m name dropping now…) – both were lovely and helped get people interested in #TFC14. @huettemann is a new follow and will become a permanent follow without a doubt. Throughout the whole day Millicent was tweetign interesting bits and only made one slip up in this ->

Millicent @MissMillicent

Instead of fighting between ourselves why not work together the best we can for the greater good of all? #Simples pic.twitter.com/VJPB3fPNSD

@huettemann was good as well – but wasn’t convincing when challenging the UK/Berlin/EU bubble thing:

Bernd Hüttemann ‏@huettemann  9h

#EUfoam: I still dont understand how somebody in Westminster bubble can understand the Brussels & Berlin bubble well #TC14 @MissMillicent

 

This could have stood, if he hadn’t come super late to the came to the Farage / employing his German wife story! I vote: @MissMillicent

(2) @euonymblog 26%  0 votes

****(1) @Usherwood 57% 2 votes

(3) @tom_wein 17% 0 votes

After a 48 hour tweeting marathon @Usherwood comes out on top, defeating @tom_wein and @euonymblog in both the judges’ and popular vote. 

Judge: @ganemmaha 

@tom_wein as well as @Usherwood get my vote: they are three in their group so now it falls upon you to decide between the two of them;) The Pathé video of @tom_wein didn’t work 😦 plus @Usherwood took the time to write a post on #TFC14! It shows dedication so if I really have to decide my vote goes to @Usherwood

Judge: @shearmanm

So after yesterday’s shock draw – i didn’t want to judge this fight – it’s far too much like hard work from two fighters that really do care about this competition and now with @euonymblog – a personal twitter favourite – thrown into the mix! But alas, when duty calls….

Lets deal with @euonymblog first. Despite being on holiday and on flights, she made a respectable twitter fight club debut. Tweeting early (from an earlier timezone) she landed a few interesting articles early on and was well engaged throughout the day. Considering the circumstances she did amazingly well and on a different day – she’d get my vote. I liked that she posted this useful guide to voting in the UK:

But she was always going to be disadvantaged and as EU Twitter fight club has already demonstrated, it takes no prisoners:

Antonia Mochan ‏@euonymblog  13h

So I’m on the other side of the world, have a four hour flight and am up against two opponents?! #doesntseemfair #TFC14

Yup. Twitter fight club isn’t fair. So moving on….. In my ruling yesterday i highlighted that Tom wanted it more than Simon, but Simon had done better at tweeting on the EU. I also promised i’d factor in @euonymblog‘s views and she signalled she’d support @usherwood for being more aligned with her.

Tom started the day with some excellent tweets of EU foreign relations. I was genuinely interested to hear that:

Tom Wein @tom_wein · 15h

I’m pleased to discover the EU has had a delegation in Papua New Guinea since 1977 http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/papua_new_guinea/about_us/welcome/index_en.htm … #TFC14

He also followed up with some decent photoshopping:

 

Tom, always attentive to judges’ engagement had @usherwood clearly in the passenger seat up to lunch. But then after my quick walk around outside something went horribly wrong for @tom_wein. Was it post-lunch tiredness (image from @usherwood)?

A routine tweet on some vintage EU footage turned into a twitter storm. You can see the storyfied disassembling of @Tom_Wein here, not by the judges, but by fellow twitter fighters as @Tom_Wein mixed up Adenauer and Churchill. Small point you say – but you don’t want me to let both of them through again do you?

Tom_Wein’s afternoon tweeting was largely focussed on lists of defence policy thoughts (his specialist subject) – major respect for getting engagement with@keohanedan but i’d already felt the tide had started to turn by that point. This seemed like it might be a side-battle for you and i didn’t see them endorse you. In contrast @Usherwood was eclectic but always interesting.

And just as I was leaving my twitter account for the day @usherwood pulled the ace out of his sleeve:

Simon Usherwood @Usherwood · 8h

A day early, but my blog on facts and emotions in debating the EU: http://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/politics/2014/04/23/do-facts-matter-when-discussing-the-eu/ … #TFC14

Simon’s blog post asks ‘Do facts matter when discussing the EU?‘ – the answer is, right now in #TFC14, no. My vote does. And you just won it @usherwood. In many ways you were lucky i saw your tweet at the right time and had just enough belief to think your style of tweeting may prove formidable against the Berlay Monster. In my mind, you are both already EU Twitter Fight Club legends. So Tom, same time next year?

*****(1) @berlaymonster 72% 2 votes

(2) @CraigWinneker 28%

@CraigWinneker plays the role of a valiant St George, but fails to slay the monster. 

Judge: @ganemmaha

So Tonight my votes go to @Berlaymonster: I love the jokes but he also gave a lot of info @Craigwinneker rts too much

Judge: @shearmanm

If there’s anything i’ve gained from #TFC14 its @CraigWinneker as a permanent follow. Clever, interesting and with a humour to challenge any EU twitterer. He tripped up though during the day and a joke back fired when he was called out by FT Bureau Chief Peter Spiegel.

Peter Spiegel @SpiegelPeter

@CraigWinneker You used this joke when we were in Capitol elevator together in 1993! Tourist asked how many people worked in Congress…

Is 1993 old enough to be retro? Probably not. But lets be honest here – @berlayMonster is one of my favourite people to follow and Usherwood neatly summed up the challenge facing Craig when he offered to take on Berlay monster right then alongside his own competitor @tom_wein. Craig was left stranded:

Craig Winneker ‏@CraigWinneker  8h

I’M RIGHT HERE @Usherwood@Berlaymonster@tom_wein@euonymblog@ShearmanM#TFC14

 

Poor Craig! You fought a noble fight. A respectable fight and in any other match, i probably would have had you into the last eight as the cool outsider. But today BerlayMonster also deserved it. He provided this awesome gif and jpg combo:

And had my favourite tweet of the day. Realising that the Americans and US Twitter Fighters were waking up (I’m referring to your trolling @trnels) – Berlay delivered this beauty:

Berlaymonster ‏@Berlaymonster  10h

Hey, Euro- #TFC14-ers. The ‘murcans are awake and watching us. (like they were earlier, only now it’s above board).

Take that original (US) #TFC14 – So yep – Craig you were noble throughout and you recognised the challenge ahead:

Craig Winneker

#TFC14 #protip: you can vote for the heavy underdog in this round, because everyone else will vote for @Berlaymonster eutwitterfightclub.wordpress.com

But the monster lives…

And thats that. Bring on the Quarter finals….. 

EU #TFC14 L16 Round – Enter the Monster…

Day 1 was chaos. But now the first round of contestants have been slain, the high ranking seeds can come in. Its not a real EU Twitter Fight Club until the @jonwoth, @kosmopolit and @Berlaymonsters of this continent get involved….. Lets see how they fare against the blooded 1st round entries.

As always, votes close at midnight GMT

It’d be great if we could have a few volunteers for judges – you don’t have to write much, just be around twitter on the day. Please email at eutwitterfightclub[at]gmail.com – thanks!

 

 

 

 

EU #TFC14 L32 Results

On a day that UKIP launch their poster campaign for #EP2014, EU Twitter fighters launched their campaign to be crowned EU #TFC14 champion. (see joke UKIP posters throughout the post). It was an astonishing to see the amount of tweets and the number of non-competitors (and L16 competitors) getting involved already. Keep it up! The European public sphere is (probably not) in reach!

Quick note before the results. One judge – Sven – is unfortunately ill – and his vote has been divided between the participants. If you were knocked out then it’d be great if you could spend a few minutes today/tomorrow judging please – as there are very few of us! Please tweet or email at eutwitterfightclub[at]gmail.com

 ***(1) @hughbs 72% 0 votes

(2) @pswidlicki 28% 0 votes

With no votes received from either judge, the public gets 100% say in this fight. The grumpy @hughbs goes into the L16! 

 

 ***(1) @Vpertusot 42% 1.5 votes

(2) @chchristiaens 58% 0.5votes

Despite losing the public vote, @Vpertusot edges out his rival (with bonus points for discussing #TFC14 at a real-world event)

Judge: @ganemmaha

so for me the winners are @VPertusot – he didn’t participate much but more than @chchristiaens. And he was funnier and talked about #TFC in a conference I know we are only supposed to consider what is done on Twitter but he did tweet about it?!

(2) @quarsan 13% 0.5 votes

***(1) @Christina_D_S 88% 1.5votes

@quarsan didn’t want to be here and by the end of the day the voters didn’t want him to be here either. @Christina_D_S storms home with a strong win and may prove to be the people’s champion!

Judge: @ganemmahaa

Between @Christian_D_S and @quarsan it’s more difficult but I’ll have to go with Christina she was fun (as was he) but he didn’t deliver much pictures and certainly not those of Ashton!

 

***(1) @ktowens 82% 0 votes
(2) @tineurope 18% 1 votes

A judge’s abstention means the popular vote wins the day. @ktowens is through to the next round! 

Judge:@danabrussels

I will abstain on this one and leave it exclusively up to @ShearmanM and the public! @tineurope is a bright young researcher I know personally; he often gets RTed by the great @Berlaymonster and even finds time to contribute to my @sloganeuizer, observing real-election-campaign-life and sharing it on Twitter. @ktowens touched a sensitive chord sharing a photo of her lovely baby and posting about direct experiences with Schengen! So: impossible to choose 🙂

Judge:@shearmanm

@tineurope was consistent throughout the day – providing interesting and useful tweets on #EP2014. He also helped fellow competitor @jonworth out with some funny #EP2014 posters – in particular this gem below convinced me early on that he would probably win the day:

That doesn’t mean @ktowens didn’t do a great job! She was clearly interested in #TFC14 from the start and the early sharing of baby photos proved to me that she was willing to go personal to win the hearts and minds of Europe. Doubly so when she shared a picture of her flight (love planes!) Her delayed flight meant she was out of action for a chunk of the day though and it showed. Playing to her strengths, her day may have been saved if she had won a big endorsement from either @EPP @EPPGroup (her employers i believe) after she went calling for support. But these attempts appeared to fail and I was left with the view that she’d make a better judge than a true twitter fighter in the next round. (please email me!)

Final thought – loved this tweet by Valentin. Showed humility, humour and love of #TFC14 in equal measure:

‏@tineurope  6h

#tfc14 is great! I have had mentions/replies/RTs by @jonworth@Berlaymonster and @captain_europe 🙂 Are they my personal #troika?

I wouldn’t count on it Valentin. Because you could be facing them very soon…. I vote @tineurope.

***(1) @huettemann 56% 2 votes

(2) @nickcrosby 44% votes

Solid victory for @huettemann in a largely dull fight.

Judge:@danabrussels

My vote goes to @huettemann. Two of the 3 tweeps I randomly selected to help me with the judging had a veery hard time choosing between these two! Guys, you have really engaged followers that know you and like you a lot! Nick fiercely criticized UKIP’s manifesto, Bernd made plenty of useful comments on the EP elections and the Commission – proving a sense of humour, while speaking about EU treaties; I see big potential there! Good luck with @MissMillicent!

Judge:@shearmanm

Seriously guys. Were you even twitter fighting? I don’t think I saw you for most of the day and didn’t get much engagement from either of you (maybe a few RT’s). Hows a judge meant to choose without some pandering / quality engagement?

This fight seemed less like a battle and more a ‘business as usual’ day at the twitter office. @nickcrosby made some quality points in response to UKIP’s poster campaign (certainly the story of the day) while @huettemann focused on the lack of #EP2014 campaigning.

So…. in a tightly fought contest, for all the wrong reasons, I vote @huettemann. I don’t want to set a precedent by pointing to @huettemann ‘s multilingualism – but throwing some German my way will always go down well and in this he had the clincher.

 

(-) @usherwood 50% 1 vote

(-) @tom_wein 50% 1 vote

This is unheard of Twitter Fight Club history. After the public and judges’ votes are considered both fighters are finely balanced on 50/50 vote. (note to self, use an odd number of judges in the future). This result truly reflects the best fight of the day (getting the most public votes overall too) and the only way to settle this is to progress both fighters – I hope you’re rested -the L16 will be a three way melee with @euonmyblog!

Judge:@danabrussels

My vote goes to @usherwood.

A difficult battle! This duel is actually the top 2 of most talkative #tfc14 tweeps. So imagine! Risking Twitter jail, they shared deep EU insights and incessantly

RTed great content. @tom_wein RTed quite a number of my tweets, but @usherwood tweeted late (sometimes even in German), probably skipping dinner, and showing he was eager to meet @euonmyblog in L16. So good luck to him, he’ll need it against Antonia!

Judge:@shearmanm

I knew that EU Twitter Fight Club was cruel when this battle emerged from the rankings… Noone did more than these two twitter fighters to make me believe EU #TFC14 was worth putting time into creating all those weeks ago. Its a cruel twist of fate that one of them should be sent home in the first round. I promise not to abstain though. They, out of the whole field, understood TFC before they entered and wouldn’t want it to end that way…..

This was a classic mismatch. Tom tweeted often and Simon tweeted well. Tom used every TFC trick in the book (bribery, flattery, humour, and a few snarky comments) while Simon took the moral high ground. Pre-game Simon had been really fun, Tom had been absent. But boy, did Tom turn up today.

Simon made an early play with a pretty interesting (and under-noticed) blog post on #TFC14 – playing to his strength of being one of the few working academics in the competition. Both took on the UKIP story, but in sharp contrast to Simon, Tom took a scatter gun approach across all fields, interests and continents (I believe you’re US based, no?) – calling in support from a number of US sources.

Tom also delivered the most notable tweeting marathon of the day. Unfortunately it was on Harry Potter and not the EU. This was classic US TFC and felt out of sync with the tone of the day and what I expected from tweeters on this side of the atlantic.

I created a storify-book of the tweets here entitled “@Tom_wein and the misguided Potter monologue” if you really want to read it. I’ll be honest and tell you that I didn’t – it was too long and was clearly filling up the time before Simon returned to pick a fight with.

But that was the point. If there was anything to split these two excellent competitiors, it was that Mr Usherwood kept disappearing. Apparently lunch and writing a chapter in a book (yes people, paper) means more to him than a very cheap trophy and a lot of (non paper-based) praise. What can I say? A few scheduled tweets would’ve covered that, but I guess you made your life choices….

Despite lots of nice humility, Simon was funny and delivered some classic snark photoshop edits too:

Here was Tom’s offering:

Simon still could have walked away with my vote had Tom not saved himself in the afternoon by tweeting some interesting references to Norman Davies, Brussels and tweeting late into the night to prove that he wanted it more. And that was it – Simon, I wanted your high-quality, reasonable-intensity approach to win. I really did, but at the end of the day, for all his failings, @tom_wein wanted it more and I want that person to go through. Suggestion for next round though Tom, make it useful, relevant and keep the humour if you want to progress. Quantity isn’t everything.

 

(2) @mikakosinska 43% 1 vote

****(1) @craigwinneker 57% 1 vote

@craigwinneker takes it with the popular vote! 

Judge:@danabrussels

My vote goes to @mikakosinska

The Monika campaign is on the roll! The early bird gets the worm: Monika was the first to tweet this morning (ok, technically after @huettemann, who tweeted yesterday evening @ 12:06 am). She started her serious tour à la #JunckerBus (endorsed by one of the most influential #TFC14 tweeps, Jon Worth). With her to-the-point tweets about EU policies of various member states and a big potential to touch hearts (see photo of her lovely baby boy), Monika will be a strong opponent to @Berlaymonster in L16.

One point for Craig’s humour, but he obviously had other things to do and threw the towel quite early in the battle.

Judge:@shearmanm

@craigwinneker – you are a clever man. Demonstrating classic Twitter Fight Club tactics, you delivered a @berlaymonster-esque twitter hashtag (#NewEUJargon) early in the day. This not only set the bar high for @mikakosinska to meet but also made it harder for the Monster to deliver the same tactic when one of you face him in the next round. Put simply, you get Twitter Fight Club and I respect that.

Of these, my favourite had to be:

Craig Winneker ‏@CraigWinneker  12h

“Cleverage”: (n) rhetorical advantage gained by using “leverage” as a verb #NewEUJargon#TFC14

@mikakosinska fought back well with baby photos (so cute!) and received major kudos for roping in @jonworth to tweet a picture in front of a campaign bus (is this verified from yesterday???):

At times though it seemed like she was fighting the wrong opponent (maybe @dicknieuw.enhuis  is all of our opponents?) She made a strong argument in favour of fighting for a better union and had some nice tweets towards the end:

Monika Kosinska ‏@mikakosinska  12h

@dicknieuwenhuis Many don’t realise the fight never finishes. Peace&prosperity take work& evolution @MigeruBlogger@erikwesselius@LostinEU

Correct. And as organiser and judge I have the burden of having to consider whats best for the competition as a whole. Who can really take the fight to the end? At present that means who has the best chance of defeating the BerlayMonster in your next round. For this reason and this reason alone, I vote @craigwinneker.

And that’s all folks – don’t forget to vote in the L16!

EU #TFC14 L32 Round

Welcome to EU #TFC14! The first round is an incomplete L32 – so some of the big hitters will be starting tomorrow (wednesday) in the L16 round.

You can find the public voting options below – The polls will close at Tuesday midnight GMT – need a criteria? – check out the rough guide here.

The public vote will make up 50% of the total vote, with judges making up the other 50% (divided evenly between them) – I hope that if you’re knocked out, you will please volunteer to referee later rounds (and get revenge?) Until then direct your bribes to L32 judges here:

Schuman + Monnet brackets : @SvenSaekert & @ganemmaha

Adenauer + Spinelli brackets: @danabrussels & @shearmanm

The public vote is below: